The Duel Ends

Lan Mu transformed into a Hunter, his figure vanishing into the forest.

His footsteps were silent as Hunting Rhythm searched for humanoid creatures.

Before long, he discovered someone crouching low and moving stealthily. It was obviously Fang Moqi.

"You're really impressive! You found the direction I fled in so quickly."

Lan Mu noticed that Fang Moqi was stealthily moving straight toward his position.

He swept past the branches like a gust of wind, leaping between trees. Before long, he landed near Fang Moqi's location.

Standing high above, the invisible lion watched Fang Moqi gloomily from above.

Fang Moqi had been moving low to the ground in an erratic manner when he suddenly froze. He hid behind a tree and looked up warily.

"Huh?"

Seeing him look over, Lan Mu immediately scrambled to a new location and quickly climbed another tree.

When he looked again, Fang Moqi seemed to have sensed something as well. His gaze shifted over, staring gravely in Lan Mu's direction.

Lan Mu was shocked. He changed positions several times in succession, but whether he was in a tree or on the ground, Fang Moqi noticed him whenever he looked at Fang Moqi.

However, Fang Moqi apparently could not see Lan Mu. He merely sensed someone watching him from Lan Mu's direction, as though that gaze had substance and put him on guard.

"This guy... he's the first person who can sense an invisible Hunter!"

Before this, Lan Mu had turned invisible in front of anyone without being noticed, so he had never discovered that the White-haired Lion's hidden ability had such a flaw.

Against someone with extremely high vigilance, the Hunter's barely concealed killing intent had nowhere to hide.

"I should pull back first."

Seeing Fang Moqi draw his bow and nock an arrow, cautiously firing toward his direction, Lan Mu immediately decided to move farther away.

The invisible Hunter dodged the arrow, landed lightly on the ground, and retreated over a hundred meters before observing remotely with Hunting Rhythm.

Sure enough, at this distance, as long as he did not look directly at Fang Moqi, he would not be detected.

Through the Hunter's senses, Lan Mu saw Fang Moqi swiftly change locations after firing that arrow.

Unfortunately for him, as long as he remained within one kilometer of Lan Mu, he could not escape Lan Mu's senses.

Lan Mu kept within a hundred meters, monitoring Fang Moqi through dozens of trees.

After seeing him stop somewhere, Lan Mu immediately transformed back into an elf and ran to the top of a large tree. Using the adhesive power of his legs, he stood firmly atop the canopy without falling. While moving quickly, he fired an arrow.

It had been a long time since Fang Moqi had faced someone in such a duel, and at first, he was extremely excited.

While carefully concealing himself, he easily found the direction Lan Mu had fled. Moreover, he discovered that Lan Mu had not made any attempt to hide misleading traces. He was moving through the forest almost like an ordinary person.

By the time Fang Moqi found him and came within fifteen meters of him, Lan Mu was still dazing out on a tree.

"This level of vigilance... does he really have no experience?"

Fang Moqi fired an arrow in disappointment, sending it straight at Lan Mu's heart.

However, when he saw Lan Mu react swiftly and dodge it, Fang Moqi's eyes lit up and he immediately gave chase.

"His reactions are extraordinary. Even I wouldn't have been able to dodge that arrow without being prepared beforehand... So he really did that deliberately?"

Thinking this, Fang Moqi slowed down slightly, maintaining his vigilance as he concealed himself.

After chasing for ten minutes, Fang Moqi shook his head. Judging by the traces Lan Mu had left while fleeing, he was fast and could leap continuously through the trees. That ability was indeed powerful, but he did not hide with any skill at all, allowing Fang Moqi to easily determine his direction of escape.

"Mm, I roughly understand now. Strong physical abilities, fast speed, quick reactions, capable of moving rapidly through trees... but his awareness is average, he lacks experience, and his scouting and counter-surveillance abilities are terrible."

"He's not a hunter at all. He's more like a combat archer. In a direct confrontation, I'd definitely die."

"But in the forest, when it comes to hiding and ambushes, he's no match for me... Constantly running away is useless. He'll always remain passive. The next time I ambush him, I won't give him another chance to dodge."

Fang Moqi had analyzed Lan Mu almost completely and was about to continue pursuing him.

When suddenly, a killing intent stabbed into his back like needles!

This was no ordinary killing intent. It felt as though a ferocious beast were staring at its prey, while the weak prey could only tremble.

"What is that?"

Fang Moqi was greatly alarmed and hurriedly looked toward the source of his sense of danger. Yet there was nothing there but leaves.

"Could it be some tiny creature? No! It must be hiding too deeply. I can't find it!"

Fang Moqi's scalp went numb. His Sixth Sense kept warning him that a dangerous creature had fixed its gaze on him.

He did everything he could, continuously sneaking about and changing positions in an attempt to shake off that gaze.

Yet no matter how he hid, that sense of danger clung to him like a parasite, making every hair on his body stand on end.

But no matter how he searched for the source of danger, he could never see his enemy.

This was an invisible enemy. That kind of enemy was the most terrifying!

Years of surviving in extreme conditions had forged his powerful instinct for danger, but never had he felt so powerless.

"No, I can't keep being passive."

Fang Moqi raised his hand and fired an arrow toward the source of danger. However, it missed, passing between two branches and embedding itself in a distant tree trunk.

"No enemy... Where is it? Huh? It seems to have left..."

After Fang Moqi fired that arrow, the parasite-like sensation vanished. It appeared that the enemy in the shadows had moved away from him.

After such a tense exchange, Fang Moqi did not dare linger and kept changing locations.

Just as he was clearing away his footprints and traces, a faint whistle of wind approached.

Whoosh!

Fang Moqi had just dodged when he realized there had been no need to. The arrow had missed, striking only a tree trunk more than a meter away from him.

But it was obvious that his position had been exposed.

"That was Lan Mu's arrow! How did he find me?"

Fang Moqi changed locations again while covertly searching the surroundings, but he never found the slightest trace of Lan Mu.

"This guy, unless he's also learned how to hide his tracks, he must have fired from even farther away."

"But from that far away, how did he know I was here?"

Fang Moqi looked up toward the high canopy. He refused to believe Lan Mu could locate him from over a hundred meters away, so to test his suspicion, he deliberately stood still.

Ten seconds later, an arrow shot down from above, piercing through layers of leaves before suddenly appearing in front of Fang Moqi.

"As expected!"

Fang Moqi had been prepared. With a swift drop to the ground, he dodged the arrow.

"He can actually know my location from so far away. How is he doing it?"

Fang Moqi kept moving, trying to escape Lan Mu's lock-on. Yet whenever he stayed somewhere for a few seconds, that spot would inevitably be struck by an arrow.

Although the arrows were perfunctory and almost impossible to hit him with, this feeling of having the enemy hidden while he remained exposed, forever being passively attacked, was terrible.

Not long ago, Fang Moqi had been pursuing Lan Mu. How had the situation suddenly reversed, with Lan Mu now pursuing him?

"Twenty-seven arrows!"

"Twenty-eight arrows!"

"Twenty-nine arrows!"

Fang Moqi did not give up. While constantly fleeing, he silently counted the arrows Lan Mu fired.

Not only that, starting from Lan Mu's fourth arrow, he had deliberately destroyed Lan Mu's arrows. Whenever Lan Mu fired at him, Fang Moqi would find a way to destroy the arrow before fleeing, preventing it from being recovered.

"He used one arrow to kill the crocodile earlier, plus the arrows he spent chasing me... He should be out of arrows!"

"But I can't let my guard down. He's wasting arrows so extravagantly. Maybe he's trying to lull me into complacency, and he can still recover the three arrows I didn't have time to destroy."

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Fang Moqi was shot at by two more arrows. This time, they were swift and fast, and he dodged them with great difficulty.

"The distance has closed! These should have been fired from thirty meters away!"

Fang Moqi deliberately waited in place for a while longer, but no arrows came.

"Tch, are they all used up? No, he should have one arrow left..."

"Only now does he know to conserve arrows? That's far too late."

Fang Moqi destroyed the arrows while vigilantly watching his surroundings.

Suddenly, a voice came from the tree.

"Fang Moqi, do you surrender?"

Recognizing Lan Mu's voice, Fang Moqi laughed loudly. "Every arrow is precious. Isn't your probing a little too extravagant? Well? How many arrows do you have left?"

Lan Mu said from the treetop, "In a real duel, one arrow is enough to decide victory or defeat."

"You're right... So you want to settle this with one final shot?"

As soon as Fang Moqi finished speaking, Lan Mu suddenly shouted from the treetop, "Watch out!"

The moment his words fell, Fang Moqi heard the distinct twang of a bowstring.

"You're firing already?"

Fang Moqi instinctively fired an arrow back, but it flew into the leaves without colliding with any other arrow.

Whoosh!

Just as Fang Moqi fired, an arrow flew out from beneath the tree, shooting straight toward his heart.

Fang Moqi's pupils instantly contracted. The arrow was swift and fierce, something no ordinary bow could fire.

The arrow tore through the air, and he could even see invisible currents of force coiling around it.

Fang Moqi realized Lan Mu's trick. He had pretended to draw his bow atop the tree, then instantly reached the base of the tree and fired the real arrow.

Truth and falsehood interwoven, he had deceived him.

Such a trick should not have been enough to defeat him. Yet he had still been careless, never realizing that Lan Mu could descend from a tree dozens of meters high to the ground in just over a second.

What he had not expected even more was for this arrow to be so fast! Incredibly fast.

Pfft!

Fang Moqi was hit beneath his left ribs. The arrow buried itself in his muscles and lodged there.

He had dodged it. At the very last moment, Fang Moqi had surpassed his limits and dodged the arrow. Yet he had only avoided his heart and was still struck.

Just like in his duel with Gates back then, he had made an unbelievable dodge at such a moment.

"Cough, cough... You really can control an arrow's speed..."

Fang Moqi still forced himself to remain standing. His injuries were not as severe as he had imagined, because that wind-speed arrow had suddenly slowed at the final moment, as though it had been controlled and abruptly decelerated. It had gone from a fast arrow that should have pierced through a human body to a slow arrow lodged only in muscle.

Lan Mu stepped out from behind the tree. He held only that cheap standard recurve bow, and his quiver was completely empty.

"Fang Moqi, you made the same choice as Gates."

Fang Moqi smiled. "Yeah! I'm the same kind of person as him..."

"To win! No matter what, I cannot be hit in the heart!"

"Unless one side dies or surrenders, the duel will continue. Showing yourself now, are you giving up?"

"It's over!"

Fang Moqi drew his bow and nocked an arrow, locking onto Lan Mu's heart.

Lan Mu did not defend himself at all, standing there openly. He wore a hat and sunglasses as he calmly said,

"You lost."

Thud!

An arrow flew from behind Fang Moqi and struck him squarely in the back of the heart, producing a dull thud.

Fang Moqi was struck hard in the back, leaving him completely stunned. Unconsciously, he released the arrow in his hand.

The arrow flew straight toward Lan Mu, who casually shifted sideways and easily dodged it.

Compared to Fang Moqi, Lan Mu's dodge left him completely unscathed.

Lan Mu picked up the arrow and smiled. "As long as it isn't a sneak attack, you'll never be able to hit me."

Fang Moqi turned around in disbelief and saw an arrow lying quietly on the ground behind him.

More accurately, it was not a normal arrow, but a straight branch with its tip sharpened into a pointed arrowhead by a blade.

"A... branch?"